


the ever baffling persistence of Kara Danvers

by karalovesallthegirls



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Cussing, F/F, zine fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26312140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karalovesallthegirls/pseuds/karalovesallthegirls
Summary: The story of how Lena accidentally tricked herself into loving Kara Danvers.(my 2020 SC Zine fic!)
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 65
Kudos: 1058





	the ever baffling persistence of Kara Danvers

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my zine fic! It's pretty fun I think!

Lena doesn’t know much about rookie reporter Kara Danvers, but she knows she’s full of shit.

That is the only logical explanation. Lena’s met her fair share of people throughout her life and the one consistency she’s found is that everyone, no matter how genuine and sweet they may seem, wants something from her. And more often than not, whatever that something is will be something very, _very_ bad for Lena.

So, when Kara intercepts that L-Corp leak and invites her to a family game night Lena can practically hear the other shoe drop.

“I would hate for you to give me these emails out of some misplaced sense of friendship,” she says, and hopes it will stop this train before it even starts.

It doesn’t, of course. Kara continues to invite her to her little game nights and still Lena refuses. Lena doesn’t want a _friend._ She isn’t interested in playing games or having girl talks or spending any extra time with fresh-faced newly-appointed reporter Kara Danvers. She’s in National City for one reason only – to begin the slow, tortuous process of rebuilding her horrible family legacy from the ground up – and nowhere in that plan is there any room for friends.  
  


* * *

  
Okay, fine.

So, they have lunch together once and it’s _fine_.

Perfectly pleasant and just barely unprofessional. Nowhere close to friendship at all. She could almost believe it’s a working lunch if Kara hadn’t ruined it by again inviting her to her silly little game night. And again, she declines, hoping that’ll be the end of it.  
  
It’s less than a week before the next invite, then another week for the next. This becomes a pattern of sorts, much to Lena’s discomfort.

Every single time Kara extends an invitation of friendship and every single time Lena firmly denies, yet still Kara continues. Whatever it is Kara is wanting to get from Lena must be important for her to so regularly keep up this charade. It must be something so devastatingly significant that she has no other choice than to keep pursuing this “friendship” so badly. What other reason is there for her to be so kind and attentive and caring? It doesn’t make sense.

The only thing that makes sense is the deep-set knowledge that every moment she spends with Kara Danvers is just another play of her manipulative game. Lena didn’t get this far in life by rolling over for every pretty smile flashed her way, and she’s not falling for it now.

So, naturally, Lena does what any good scientist would do and decides to put Kara to the test. Time to see just how quickly she can make her break.  
  


* * *

  
It starts small with a casual remark said over a shared meal. Almost like an accident, as if Lena truly had let her guard down around Kara enough to overshare. She mentions an upcoming buy-out of a competitor that specializes in children’s medication. Her carefully careless words carry a darker connotation than Lena would ever use in a press release – this buy-out could be painted as yet another evil Luthor attempt to gain power at the expense of the helpless. Kara could easily paint it like that and make the front page.

Kara reacts with the appropriate amount of shock after she says it but doesn’t press. Lena fully expects to see it published in the next news cycle. Expects this charade of friendship to finally be done, now that she’s given Kara something newsworthy.

Yet it never surfaces. No CatCo exclusive, no Kara Danvers byline. A career boosting secret that never hits the press.

Once the buy-out is finished and her carefully polished PR packet released – _L-Corp will use its resources to cut the price of these life-saving medicines tenfold_ – she finally broaches it with Kara while they share yet another (business, completely business) lunch together.

It’s almost funny, the look Kara gives her, as if her question was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.  
  
“Yeah, but you told me that when we were hanging out,” Kara says with broccoli in her teeth. “Not in an interview. So that totally doesn’t count.”  
  
“I’m sorry, did you just say that secret inside information on a Luthor trying to buy-out a medicine company _doesn’t count?_ ”

“Okay, first of all, you’re not some big scary villain. Take it down a notch, drama lady,” Kara nudges her with her toe in a decidedly unprofessional way that does not at all make Lena blush and adds, “Also you never told me I could and I didn’t wanna ask, what with everything else on your plate.”

Lena is genuinely confused.

“Why would that matter?”

“I would never publish something like that without talking to you about it first, Lena. I care about you.”

It’s so earnest, is the thing. Kara says it like she actually believes it, like she genuinely cares about Lena as a person and not merely a means to an end. It makes her face heat up in a way it never has before.

After that, Lena becomes more determined than ever to prove she’s a fraud.  
  


* * *

  
In retrospect, Lena may have gone a little overboard in her attempts. So overboard that, had Kara truly been the person Lena believed and feared her to be, Kara could have done actual, life-changing harm to her.

First, Lena “accidentally” emails an incredibly incriminating piece of data to Kara. She immediately receives a panicked call from her letting her know what she did, that Kara had deleted everything from her system, and that Lena might want to reconsider what she sends through email.  
  
Then Lena visits Kara at work and leaves a blank check on her desk. Kara certified mails it back to her overnight.

Fed up, she just leaves Kara alone in her office with her computer open and unlocked, the desktop empty except for a folder labeled ‘World Domination Plans’ open and visible. She stands in the bathroom for ten minutes watching the footage from her hidden camera but Kara just sits there, doodling on her paper.

Kara Danvers is persistent, Lena will give her that. It’s like she’s waiting for something big. Like she’s biding her time, ignoring the small incidents until something truly world-altering reveals itself and she finally can as well.  
  
 _It’s like she’s genuine_ , a terrible voice in Lena’s chest whispers, _like she actually cares about you._

The specter of Kara Danvers haunts Lena’s every moment, taunting her with the false possibilities of what could be. Kara is a terror, Lena realizes, because she’s made her realize how desperately she wants what she can never have. Genuine love. Genuine affection. Genuine human connection without conditions or expectation. Kara pretends to have that with Lena despite everything, and Lena’s heart is starting to believe it. Not her brain, of course, but the most treacherous part of her. She’s starting to feel it, and she’ll never forgive her for that.  
  
So, she does something stupid. The charade has to end, she’s realized in her drunken stupor, and it has to end with a bang. She throws back her (third) drink of the night and hits her speed dial, and in no time Kara Danvers is there.  
  
“Lena,” she says with her fake genuine care. Holds her hand with her pretend affection. “What’s going on?”  
  
“Sometimes, I think I could have stopped him.” That’s it. Her biggest secret, the one that will destroy her. The one Kara can have so she’ll finally leave her. Just like everyone else.

Kara sits heavily on the couch beside her and says nothing. That’s fine, Lena will talk for them both.  
  
“I knew something was wrong with him. That he had it in him to be-” she waves her hand vaguely in the air and hiccups, “a monster. A Luthor. That’s how we were raised to be. So, knew – I knew he could do real harm, and I didn’t- I didn’t stop him. I let him do it. _It’s my fault.”_

She falls asleep at some point. The night is a blur after that, though she remembers leaning into Kara’s arms. Being carried by her. She even dreams she’s flying.  
  
Regardless, she falls asleep in a sloppy mess in her office and wakes in a strange bed that turns out to be Kara’s.

The night before comes back in patches. All she knows for sure is she really messed things up.

The first thing she does is check her phone. She anticipates a deluge of texts from lawyers or reporters, something to signify the extent of her mistake, but there’s nothing beyond a text from Kara letting her know there’s coffee in the kitchen.

She trudges out and does her best to hold her head up high.  
  
Kara’s sitting on the couch typing away, but when she finally looks up at her the expression in her eyes nearly knocks the breath from her lungs.  
  
“Hey,” Kara says, approaching her like someone approaches a scared cat about to bolt. “It’s okay to say no, but can I hug you right now?”

And of course, like the weak-willed woman she is, she nods.

She can feel Kara’s breath huffing against her head, can feel the firm kiss she presses against her scalp.  
  
“Lena Luthor,” she says, tightening her grip lest Lena flee the hug, “you are not a bad person. Nothing your brother or mother or anybody else ever did was your fault. You are too smart and too kind and _too good_ to ever be like them. You got that?”

She nods, even as she doesn’t believe a word of it, and holds on tighter. The worst sort of realization hits her then as she cries in Kara’s arms.

Kara Danvers may be the first genuine person she’s ever met in her life. And, worst of all, Lena might be a little in love with her for it.

_  
Shit.  
  
_

* * *

  
It’s been six years, seven months, and fourteen days since Lena Luthor first met Kara Danvers. Four years since she realized she loved her, three years five months since she said she loved Lena back.

She now knows Kara Danvers like the back of her hand, but above all else she knows this: Kara Danvers is full of shit.

“You’re a dirty cheat,” Lena practically growls at the other woman. “I know what you’re up to, _Supergirl,_ and you won’t get away with it. I see through your lies.”  
  
For her part, the girl of steel merely seems tickled by the accusation. She leans into Lena’s space, stealing her air, eyes dancing across her features like she’s looking for a weakness. As if Lena would ever give her that.

“How dare you," Kara says firmly. “I’m the paragon of hope! I could never lie. Are you questioning my character, _Mrs. Danvers_?”  
  
“It’s _Doctor_ Danvers, actually,” Lena quips back.

“I swear if you don’t show your card, I’m gonna murder both of you in your sleep,” Alex finally chimes in seconds before a handful of popcorn kernels bounce off the side of Lena’s head. The rest of the room shout out their agreement. It seems they also want game night to continue and not be stalled by the Super and former-Luthor drama.  
  
Finally, painfully, Kara flips her card over to reveal that she was, in fact, bluffing. Everyone laughs and jeers as she’s forced to take the entire deck into her hand, thus going from a clear victory to last place in this round of Cheat.  
  
Lena has no sympathy for her wife, of course, even as she snuggles up against her to pout.

“Okay, maybe I am a little full of it,” Kara confesses, pressing her face against Lena’s.  
  
“I know, darling,” Lena says with a loud kiss to her cheek. “I’ve always known.”

**Author's Note:**

> yeah I think that was pretty fun


End file.
